Any emergency landing that I am not involved in :-)
On a serious note, I think the landing of an AC 767 into an auto race track when it ran out of fuel was an example of great emergency landing. The 767 ran out of the fuel because the ground crew was confused with the metric system. They filled the tank with x liter of fuel while thinking they were filling it with x gallons of fuel. The plane's fuel gauge was out, but they let it fly anyway. After in-flight shutdown of both engines, the 767glided to the ground and landing on a auto race track without any casualties and only small damage.

I think that the United 747 that cargo door rippend the side of the plane open was a great landing also the Aloha 737 the top flew of the plane. People died in both cases but it was incredible how many survived.
Iain

Back in 1997 I've heard of an accident with Tu-154 approaching Vladivostok (or Khabarovsk) which had been hit by a lighting. One of the three engines went on fire, but pilots managed to land it safely...sweet...

i would agree on the united 747 - as tragic the way people lose their lives with inflight break ups, even more heroic is the way skilled pilots land the plane.

with regards to the air canada 767 landing on an "auto race track", this was in gimli, manitoba, canada (i live 25 miles away) and the strip they landed on was in fact an old runway which was built in wwII for allied force training. further more, to this day, the canadian force hercules aircraft use the strip for touch and goes, etc. in the summer the strip becomes a drag race course. the movie made for the flight was full of inaccuracies and quite silly. the 767-200 still flys today for air canada... sorry... do not have the reg.

The aircraft encountered heavy precipitation, including hail up to
1.25in. in diameter, while on approach to New Orleans International
Airport.

Power in both engines was interrupted at 16,200ft. The Flight Crew were
able to establish emergency electrical power and start the aircraft's
auxiliary power unit at an altitude of 10,500ft. A total of four engine
restarts were then attempted, two for each engine, without success.

Initially, the captain was planning to ditch the aircraft in the
Intracoastal Waterway, but at the last minute he sighted a 6,060 X 120ft
grass strip. The flight crew successfully made an unpowered landing.
(/quote)

**UA's crash in Souix City wasn't a classic or a great landing-----there were a TON of people who lost their lives. The DC-10 took a nosedive, and then continued to cartwheel down the runway.......how classic was that? Not very. Sad, YES.

China Airlines (I think) would be the best. Their 747-400's aft end was bobbing in the South China Sea, while the front end was on Kai Tak's runway.

A no brainer, bad take off-----When PA hit KLM (or vice versa) on takeoff from the Canary Islands. One of the two (I think PA) was a little antsy to take off, and it blew into the taxying KLM plane. Pretty sad, though.

The KLM hit the Pan Am and the KLM pilots was a moaron!!! He had throttled up 3 times and the FO corrected him and said we are not cleared. At the last time the Junior FO thought that he dhouls not correct the captain that many times and let him go! It was in tenerife!
Another great landing was of a Reno air taking off out of SNA a bir get blown into one of the engines so the crew shut it down and then the other engine failed and the glided in to long Beach. That is pretty skilled!
Iain

The Tenerife crash was caused by the KLM pilot(Captain Van-Doerren???) begining a takeoff before the tower had signaled that the Pan-Am aircraft had cleared the runway. Both the Spanish and the American crash inspectors found for this. The Dutch government attempted to shift the blame on the tower but most people write of their report as a political cover-up. I hear it is a riot to read it due to the numerous errors and incorrect assumptions. Does anybody know where I can get a copy of that report or the other two reports on the crash.

The Sioux City crash is pretty spetactualar. They have a tape at this school that United did up to show it's crews about how the flight crew and the check captian worked together on that flight. I havn't seen it for over a year but. I remember the check captian saying that they caught a little crosswing over the trees landing and he couldn't put in a little more throttle on that side to straghten it out because they where already screaming in at +200 knots and would have turned them off the runway heading. Remember differential throttles where the only stearing available to them.

Most people don't remeber Reeve Aleutian Airways Flight Number 8. I was flying the Cold Bay Alaska to Seattle Washington run. The aircraft was N1968R. It took off over the Gulf of Alaska and about an hour after takeoff the gearbox in the number 3 engine shattered and the prop was flung off and through the bottom half of the fuselage cutting all of the fligh and engine control cables and narrowly missing a flight attendent and the flight engineer who was in the back. They got flew the airplane almost 700 miles north to Anchorage before they where able to land without any injuries by overpowering the autopilot for roll control and using the landing gear and shutting down a second engine to slow the plane and decend.

This is a morbid subject, but I would like to say more about Tenerife crash.

In fact, the KLM pilot start rolling with out be clear to take off and ignoring his co-pilot.
But the Pan Am pilot was told to exit the runway on the 3º intersection left, but he did understand 3º taxiway left, wich is the 4º intersection.
This made him stay on the runway more time, while the Pan Am was already rolling for take off coming from opposite direction.
Two errors from the two pilots

I agree that the Pan Am pilot made an error but I disagree it was his fault because of it. The KLM pilot had not even been cleared to take off!! And he was preceding to take off. The co pilot pulled the throttle back on him more then once what kind of pilot is that not to get a clearance and you can not say he forgot!!
Iain

Yes Iain, I agree with you on the fact that the big error was the one from the KLM pilot.
I just thought that the confusion with the communications between ATC and Pan Am pilot was also important in this terrible accident and should be mentioned

I think the Aloha Airlines 737 landing was the greatest emergency landing. The 737 had metal fatigue and the ceiling of the cabin was ripped off. Only one flight attendant was lost. The plane landed safely.

Hi. I do belive I have read about this crash or a similar one. I am pretty sure it was this one. Something happened at the airport that they were both supposed to go to, I belive a bombing in the terminal, so they both headed there. (They were both doing charter). The airport they were headed to was Las Palmas Airport. Seeing that the KLM 747 was already late, he took maters into his own hands. Instead of waiting to be cleared, he cleared himslef, because he wanted his passengers to get there, late, but not too late. Well, this move turned out to make the passengers NEVER make it. As he tok off, he hit the Pan Am 747. There is no one else to blame except the KLM pilot, that fool! Taking the lives of over I think like 600 people into his own hands! I belive this is the worst aviation disaster to date. Corrections welcomed!

Yep that's right, i saw a program on it, I believe it was "Survival in the Skies" Went into the circumstances and everything leading up to it. The captain on KLM was about to hit his 10 hour work day and was anxious to go, and like you said, essentially he cleared himself. They were never given clearance to go